The present invention relates to a practice device for corrected golf swing.
Correct club swing is a basic requirement for a golf player. It is most important in playing golf to make sure of a correct impact zone, to move a club-head linearly to a target and to keep a face of the club-head square to a target line.
In order to improve a sense of golf swing as have been described above, a pair of umbrellas have sometimes been utilized as a means for golf swing practice, as illustrated in FIG. 5 of the accompanying drawings as prior art. With such a practice means, a golf ball is set at the middle of the space defined between these paired umbrellas placed on the ground surface (or the floor surface) so as to extend in parallel to each other, then a player strikes the golf ball for the swing practice with a driver or an iron club with a stance outside one of these umbrellas substantially at the middle of this umbrella. During such practice, if the club-head comes in contact with any one of the umbrellas, the parallelism of the paired umbrellas will be disturbed. On the basis of such disturbance of the parallelism, the player may recognize, although uncertainly, that a trajectory of the club-head has not been in linear alignment with the target line, i.e., whether the swing has described a trajectory of “inside out” or “outside in” or whether the swing has been “cut shot” or not.
Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 3076896 discloses a practice device for corrected putter stroke. This known practice device comprises a bottom plate, a pair of guide walls extending in parallel and opposed to each other along opposite sides of the bottom plate, a putter guide unit having a golf ball positioning depression formed on the bottom plate at a transversely middle position on one end thereof, a putter provided with a guide roller so that the putter may be inserted into a space defined between the paired guide walls and the roller may roll on at least one of the guide walls, and an immobilizing means adapted to immobilize the putter guide unit having been installed on the floor surface. In the case of this practice device, the putter may be moved within the putter guide unit so as to hit the golf ball in the golf ball positioning depression. So far as the putter moves in parallel to the guide walls, the putter will correctly hit the golf ball and the player will be free from any feeling of resistance and/or incompatibility due to a pressure of the putter against the associated one of the guide walls in the course of the putter's stroke. However, if the putter's stroke is not parallel to the associated guide wall, a feeling of resistance and/or incompatibility will be transmitted to the player's hands, making the player aware of incorrectness of his or her putter stroke.
In the case of the prior art as has been described above in the course of swinging, if the club-head comes in contact with any one of the paired umbrellas, the initial parallelism between them will be disturbed or the umbrella(s) will be damaged by an impact power. It will be bothersome to reset the paired umbrellas. In addition, if the swing practice is continued with the paired umbrellas left in the disturbed placement, it will be impossible for the player to make sure of a correct impact zone and/or to become aware of a correct swing. Thus, the desired effect of the practice can not be obtained.
The practice device disclosed by the prior art is for correct putter's stroke and therefore this device is not useful for swing practice with the clubs other than the putter such as an iron and a driver as well as for approach practice with a wedge.